ROUTE AVN ALLEGHENY VALLEY NORTH FLYER

ROUTE AVN ALLEGHENY VALLEY NORTH FLYER Route AVN Allegheny Valley North Flyer provides express service between Harrison Township and downtown Pittsburgh. The route is very similar to Route AV Allegheny Valley Flyer, except that it uses Route 28/Allegheny Valley Expressway to bypass New Kensington, Springdale and Cheswick. In effect, it is a more express version of Route AV Allegheny Valley Flyer. Service is very limited, with only two AM inbound trips and two PM outbound trips. Figure 1: Route AVN Allegheny Valley North Flyer Similar Routes Route AVN operates in an area with a large amount of overlapping service. Including Route AVN, four express routes and three local routes operate in the Route 28/Allegheny Valley Expressway corridor, six express routes operate along Washington Boulevard, and 33 routes operate in the East Busway. Three of the express routes (Route AV, Route AVN Allegheny Valley North Flyer, and Route 3M Tarentum Natrona Express) are all very similar. Each serves many of the same areas north of the Allegheny River, and each operates to and from downtown Pittsburgh via the Highland Park Bridge and the East Busway. One of the two local routes (Route 1A New Kensington) is essentially the local version of the three express routes. Overlapping services along Route 28/Allegheny Valley Expressway and Washington Boulevard are: Route 28/ Allegheny Valley Expressway Corridor Route 1A New Kensington provides local service between Heights Plaza in Natrona Heights and downtown Pittsburgh, largely along Freeport Road and East Ohio Street. Route 5A Natrona - Argonne Drive operates between Harrison Township and Creighton along Freeport Road at several locations including north of Spring Hill Road, through Natrona Heights, and Page 1

between 7 th Avenue and Crawford Run Road in Tarentum and Pittsburgh Mills, as well as portions of Corbett Street and 4th Avenue. Route 3L Creighton Lower Burrell Express operates between Creighton and downtown Pittsburgh inbound via the same alignment, and via a partially different alignment outbound. Route 3M Tarentum-Natrona Express, operates between Heights Plaza in Natrona Heights and downtown Pittsburgh, largely along Route 28/Allegheny Valley Expressway. Route 93A Aspinwall Cheswick operates between the Springdale Volunteer Fire Department Park and Ride Lot and East Liberty. Route AV Allegheny Valley Flyer, operates between the Harrison Volunteer Fire Department in Harrison and downtown Pittsburgh along a very similar alignment as Route AV, but serves New Kensington, Springdale, Cheswick, and Blawnox. Washington Boulevard Route AV Allegheny Valley North Flyer Route D Middle Road Flyer Route 3M Tarentum Natrona Express Route 3L Creighton Lower Burrell Express Route 93A Aspinwall Cheswick Express Alignment/Service Patterns Route AVN uses a similar alignment inbound and outbound. Inbound, the route travels along Freeport Road from the Harrison Hills Volunteer Fire Department, through central Tarentum and along Route 28/Allegheny Valley Expressway. It exits at the ramp to RIDC Industrial Park but does not go into the park. From there, the bus re-enters Route 28 to the Highland Park Bridge, and continues on Washington Boulevard to the East Busway to downtown Pittsburgh. The outbound trips follow the same alignment in reverse, but along a slightly different street pattern through central Tarentum. Service operates with a single inbound and a single outbound variant. Schedule Route AVN operates only on weekdays, and provides two AM inbound trips and two PM outbound trips. End-to-end trip times range from 66 to 69 minutes. Table 1: Route AVN Schedule Statistics Span of Service One-Way Trips Headways (departure times Inbound Outbound (minutes) Weekdays AM Peak 6:24 am & 7:06 am 2 0 42 PM Peak 4:40 pm & 5:15 pm 0 2 35 All Day 2 2 Page 2

As described above, Route AVN is very similar to Route AV Allegheny Valley Flyer, and the schedules for the two routes are presented on the same public timetable. (Route AV provides most of the service, with seven inbound trips and seven outbound trips.) Ridership Ridership on Route AVN is approximately 140 passengers per weekday. Ridership has been stable over at least the past six years. Ridership is unbalanced, with over twice as many inbound riders (93) as outbound riders (45). Total ridership per trip is also twice as high inbound as outbound (see Table 2). This is largely because ridership on the last outbound Route AVN trip at 5:15 pm is very low (13 passengers), and which indicates that this departure time does not work well for most passengers. Table 2: Route AVN: Ridership by Time Period and Per Trip Weekday Ridership Ridership/ Trip Inbound AM Peak 93 46.5 Outbound PM Peak 45 22.5 Both Directions 138 34.5 Ridership on Route AVN is concentrated at a relatively small number of stops (and no passengers board or alight at 38, or 60%, of the route s 63 bus stops). On inbound trips, there are only four stops with five or more boardings (see also Figure 2): Freeport Road at Saxonburg Boulevard (opposite Mount Airy Cemetery) with 9 boardings. Freeport Road at Spring Hill Road, with 7 passenger boardings. Freeport Road at Harvard Avenue, with 12 boardings. Tarentum Park and Ride Lot, with 24 boardings, and which account for 75% of all inbound ridership. Six of the first 66 passengers that board the inbound trips alight before the bus reaches the Tarentum Park and Ride, indicating that a small number of passengers use the route for local trips before Route 5A service begins at 9:00 am. After buses depart from the Tarentum Park and Ride, they operate with closed door service to the ramp adjacent to RIDC Industrial Park, where five passengers alight and one rider boards. From there to Downtown, no passengers board and only three alight at East Liberty Station. In total, 84% of all riders alight in Downtown. Outbound ridership is only about one-half of inbound ridership (45 versus 93), but outbound ridership patterns mirror those of inbound riders. Ridership on both inbound trips is relatively strong, with approximately 40 on the first inbound trip, 54 on the second inbound trip, and 42 on the first outbound trip. However, as mentioned above, ridership averages only 13 passengers on the second outbound trip. Since over 80% of Page 3

Figure 3: Route AVN Ridership by Stop: All Day Inbound 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 FREEPORT RD @ HARRISON HILLS VFD-NO STOP FREEPORT RD OPP OAK MANOR (YMCA E FREEPORT RD @ EVERGREEN FREEPORT RD BONNIEVIEW FS FREEPORT RD @ SAXONBURG FREEPORT RD LENGEL FREEPORT RD @ DAVIS FREEPORT RD OPP AUTO PARTS STORE FREEPORT RD BURTNER FREEPORT RD @ BEACON FREEPORT RD LILAC FREEPORT RD POPLAR FREEPORT RD @ SPRING HILL FREEPORT RD @ HARVARD FREEPORT RD @ PENNSYLVANIA FREEPORT RD PENNSYLVANIA FREEPORT HEIGHTS PLAZA-TIMEPOIN FREEPORT RD @ PRINCETON FREEPORT RD DALLAS FREEPORT RD @ FAIRMONT FREEPORT RD MONTANA FREEPORT RD IDAHO FREEPORT RD OREGON FREEPORT RD @ CALIFORNIA FREEPORT RD CALIFORNIA FREEPORT RD ALABAMA FREEPORT RD MILE LOCK PENN ST @ BROADVIEW FS PENN ST UNION PENN ST @ ATLANTIC PENN ST @ ROUP 9TH ST PENN FS 9TH ST @ MORGAN 9TH ST @ PROSPECT 9TH ST PROSPECT 9TH ST GRANT 9TH ST HORNER 9TH ST @ ORMOND 9TH ST @ CORBET CORBET ST 8TH CORBET ST @ 6TH E 6TH AVE @ DICKEY E 6TH AVE LOCK ROSS ST @ TARENTUM PARK-N-RIDE RIDC PARK RAMP-SOUTH @ GAMMA WASHINGTON BLVD ALLEGHENY RIVER BLVD WASHINGTON BLVD OPP HIGHLAND WASHINGTON BLVD NEGLEY RUN WASHINGTON BLVD LIBERTY WELDING WASHINGTON BLVD CYPHERS COMPANY WASHINGTON BLVD #965 WASHINGTON BLVD SHETLAND WASHINGTON BLVD FRANKSTOWN 5TH AVE HAMILTON EAST LIBERTY DIV DRVWY 5TH FS EAST LIBERTY DIV DRVWY EMPLOYEE PARKING EAST BUSWAY @ EAST LIBERTY STATION D EAST BUSWAY NEGLEY STATION C EAST BUSWAY HERRON STATION D EAST BUSWAY @ PENN STATION C LIBERTY AVE 10TH FS LIBERTY AVE @ OPP SMITHFIELD LIBERTY AVE @ 8TH (TITO) LIBERTY AVE @ 5TH LIBERTY AVE HILTON LIBERTY AVE @ GATEWAY #4 Passengers Load Out from Stop Total Ons Total Offs Load Out From Stop Page 4

Figure 3: Route AVN Maximum Loads (All Sampled Trips) 60 50 Inbound Outbound Maximum Load 40 30 20 ` 10 0 6:27 AM 7:06 AM 4:41 PM 5:14 PM 5:21 PM riders travel to and from downtown Pittsburgh, maximum loads are close to total loads. Consequently, the two inbound trips and the first outbound trip operate at close to seated capacity, while the last outbound trip runs fairly empty (see Figure 3). Productivity Route AVN has below-average productivity with regard to costs, passengers per unit of service, and the ratio of total vehicle hours to revenue vehicle hours (see Table 2). Productivity is impacted by the long length of the route, very low ridership on the last outbound trip, and a large amount of deadhead time. Table 2: Route AVN Weekday Productivity Express/ Flyer Route AVN Average Operating Cost/Passenger $7.32 $5.07 Passengers/Revenue Vehicle Hour 32.9 34.2 Passengers/Total Vehicle Hour 18.0 22.6 Passengers/Revenue Mile 1.3 1.7 Total Vehicle Hours/Rev Vehicle Hours 1.82 1.51 Average Speed 25.0 20.2 Bus Stops/Mile 2.2 3.3 Directness 0.84 0.74 Number of Variations 2 4.7 Page 5

Operating Cost/Passenger: Route AVN s operating cost per passenger is $7.32, which is 45% higher than the average operating cost per passenger for express/flyer routes. (However, this cost is lower than for Route AV, which has an operating cost per passenger of $8.47.) Ridership per Unit of Service: The average number of passengers per vehicle revenue hour for this route is 33, which is only slightly below average. However, passengers per total vehicle hour are 20% lower than the average. Passengers per revenue vehicle mile are also below average, at 1.3. Total Vehicle Hours versus Revenue Vehicle Hours: The ratio of total vehicle hours to revenue vehicle hours, at 1.82, is very high. This reflects the limited service nature of the route that requires eight deadhead trips to operate four revenue trips. Directness: The route is more direct than most. However, it would be more direct if it operated to Downtown via Route 28/East Ohio Street. Average Speed: With long, sparsely populated stretches and few turns, Route AVN averages 25 mph, which is 5 mph faster than the average express/flyer route. Bus Stops/Mile: Route AVN has an average of 2.2 stops per mile, or one every 2,400 feet. Along part of the alignment, the bus operates as true express service with no bus stops. Stops along the outer portion of the route are closer together. Number of Variations: Route AVN has only one inbound and one outbound alignment, which implies that Route AVN is straightforward. However, Route AVN is, in effect, a variation of Route AV, which is very complex, and Route AVN s two variants further complicate the overall Route AV/AVN service structure. Service Design Service in the Allegheny Valley corridor is very complex, with a large number of overlapping express and local routes, and the provision of limited service routes such as Route AVN make a complicated service structure even more complicated. In addition, Route AVN is unusual in that, whereas most express routes are express versions of local routes, Route AVN is an express version of an express route (Route AV). Finally, the operation of the route via the East Busway reduces the directness of the route and increases travel times but serves few riders. Overall, service in the Allegheny Valley corridor needs to be simplified, and changes need to be made to Route AVN as part of that simplification. Service Improvement Opportunities As described above, the most important improvements that need to be made are to simplify service throughout the corridor. Potential changes that are related to Route AVN are as follows: Page 6

Consolidate Routes AV, AVN and 3M: As with Route AVN, Routes AV and 3M also need to be simplified. One way to do this would be to consolidate the three routes into a single route that provides a high level of service along a single alignment. Operate Service Directly to Downtown via Route 28/East Ohio Street: As described above, relatively few riders board or alight Route AVN service along Washington Boulevard, in East Liberty, or along the East Busway. Service could be made more direct, and faster, by operating service directly to Downtown via Route 28/East Ohio Street. Shorten Route: Service to Harrison Township and Natrona Heights could be eliminated and provided by Route 5A, which would allow Route AVN to begin and end operation at the Tarentum Park and Ride. (This would necessitate operation of Route 5A earlier in the day, but which may be appropriate.) Modify Departure Times: Departure times could be changed so that AM buses depart 50 or even 60 minutes apart, making it easier to remember the schedule. In addition, a later departure from downtown Pittsburgh could be considered for PM buses, given low passenger loads on the 5:15 pm bus. Eliminate Bus Stops: Approximately 60% of the stops along Route AVN are not used, and many others are only lightly used. Consolidation of lightly used stops would improve speeds and simplify the route, and elimination of unused stops would reduce maintenance costs. Page 7